IMMIGRATION
In an extremely rare move, a Jamaican lesbian living in Sunrise has avoided deportation -- for now -- after an immigration judge allowed the 29-year-old to stay in the United States because her sexual orientation could cause her to be tortured in her home country.
MIAMI SEAQUARIUM
Under water, the teens could hear the dolphins talk to their trainers in a high-pitched warble. Above the water, they touched the animals' rubbery noses, flukes and fins.
U.S. INTELLIGENCE
A veteran spy catcher's appearance on Spanish-language TV in Miami has added fuel to the decades-long debate about the Castro government's interest in spying in South Florida.
DRIFTER
For weeks, Ronald ''Ronnie'' Novack's whereabouts were a mystery. Pompano Beach shelter or Pembroke Pines apartment, nobody knew for sure.
SECRET SERVICE
A Marathon man who allegedly threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is being held by federal authorities.
BROWARD COUNTY
The 65-year-old Miramar man accused of shooting a federal customs agent in a post-office parking lot told police he killed him moments after an angry exchange the pair had while driving along a tree-lined roadway in Pembroke Pines.
IRAQ
The United States and Iraq are nearing completion of negotiations on a security agreement that would pull American troops out of Iraqi cities by next July and foresees all U.S. combat troops gone by 2011, according to two Iraqi officials who are familiar with the negotiations.
MICHIGAN
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was jailed Thursday for a bond violation in his perjury case, his pleas for leniency rejected by a judge who made it clear the mayor would get no special treatment.
WILDLIFE
Lefty and Righty, two young green sea turtles, have done their part to help researchers learn more about a herpes-like virus that affects sea turtles worldwide.
FLORIDA KEYS
An investigation, dubbed ''Operation Freezer Burn,'' netted what some have called one of the most prolific lobster poachers in the country.
GUANTANAMO BAY
In a stunning rebuke, a six-member U.S. military jury Thursday ignored a Pentagon prosecutor's plea for a 30-year term and sentenced Osama bin Laden's driver to 66 months in prison.
BIOTERRORISM | ANTHRAX CASE
For a few long hours in 2001, things looked impossibly grim for Dr. Irshad Shaikh and his brother, Masood. Not long after dawn on Nov. 13, armed FBI agents hunting for the anthrax killer crashed through the door of his Pennsylvania home and spent the next 13 hours searching the place in moon suits. Another team raided the apartment of a colleague, a few blocks away.
AFGHANISTAN
The deadliest three months for American forces in Afghanistan have pushed the U.S. death toll to at least 500, forcing a war that has long been overshadowed by Iraq back into the headlines.
In ancient times, a Westerner had to journey for months, even years, to reach China. Today, thanks to modern air travel, it takes much longer. I estimate that the plane I was on flew around the entire Earth three times before we got here. By the time we landed, I had a near-fatal case of a medical condition that is known, technically, as ``monkey butt.''
PEMBROKE PARK
Exactly one year ago Wednesday, a bullet almost a half-inch wide ripped into Broward Sheriff's Deputy Maury Hernandez's brain. His chances of surviving were slim, and the odds of him waking -- much less walking or talking -- were even lower.
The trial and sentencing of Osama bin Laden's driver by a military commission at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, will never be considered a great moment in the history of American justice.
Publix Super Markets revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the amount it is paying to buy 49 Albertson's stores in Florida. Lakeland-based Publix said it is paying about $500 million for the stores. The deal was originally announced June 9 and is expected to close in September, according to Thursday's filing.
REAL ESTATE
Florida remains by far the most popular location for foreign buyers of real estate, accounting for 25.4 percent of all international purchases in the United States.
When Publix needs to dispose of unedible fruits, vegetables and meat, the grocery chain normally dumps them in a landfill. That's about to change with a recycling partnership with Organic Recovery.
In Beijing, even the fans will be in peak form for the Olympics. More than 300,000 people have been trained as volunteer cheerleaders for the Games, taking classes to perfect elaborate hand gestures and loud chants, such as Jia you! Jia you! -- Add fuel! Add fuel!
I came here to see the Great Wall of China. To make the trip, you get a taxi in Beijing, then take the Great Wall Freeway to the Great Wall exit. Really.
MIAMI DOLPHINS
Dolphins vice president of football operations Bill Parcells, while breaking his usual public silence for a wide-ranging interview with longtime sportscaster Lesley Visser, didn't rule out the possibility of signing former Jets quarterback Chad Pennington.
MARLINS 3, PHILLIES 0
No power. No problem. Despite going three games without a home run, the Marlins accomplished their goal of winning their series against the Philadelphia Phillies by taking the rubber match on Thursday afternoon, 3-0.
They failed to turn their smoggy skies blue. Their authoritarian government remains under fire for human rights violations. But Beijing Olympic organizers dazzled an audience of 91,000 at the whimsical Bird's Nest stadium and another estimated 4 billion watching on television Friday with a colorful, imaginative opening ceremony that bridged ancient and modern Chinese history and befitted the Games' $40 billion price tag.
In concept, the movies that form Judd Apatow's canon sound like a grab bag of 10-minute comedy skits: A schlub gets a hot girl pregnant. Two high school losers try to score alcohol for a party. An ordinary guy gets dumped by his TV-famous girlfriend. A 40-year-old virgin tries to remedy his situation.
Quentin Tarantino didn't lend his name to Hell Ride in order to make money, rather to make a point. His Grindhouse was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, which may be why it failed to excite many viewers. The motorcycle gang melodrama Hell Ride shoves that tongue through the cheek like a switchblade. This movie feels like the real deal, a ''whopper of a chopper opera,'' as one biker describes it.
The American teenager has been the subject of so much dissection and analysis in popular culture that a documentary titled American Teen initially sounds redundant. What could a film that followed a group of Indiana high school students for a year possibly offer that a dozen reality-TV shows or a surf through MySpace don't already provide?
TELEVISION
Explorer: Zoo Tiger Escape, 10-11 p.m. Sunday, National Geographic Channel Years ago when I was living in Nicaragua, my slightly horrified housekeeper called me out to the yard, where the jungle genes of my ordinarily amiable cat, Panchito, had been awakened by the sight of a baby possum trying to play dead. Holding the possum in his teeth, Panchito jumped straight up, then snapped his head up at the top of the leap, tossing the bedraggled little creature another foot or so into the air. Every time...
AFTER DARK
10:35 p.m.: I'm sitting in bed watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network. My mom calls me on my cellphone and instantly adopts an accusatory tone when she learns I'm ''wasting time'' front of the TV.
AS SEEN ON TV
Keegan Michael Key can be serious sometimes. But only if it's for a good cause. The MADtv-er is in town Friday to host a car wash benefit with New York's subway pole dancers, the Pole-ite Girls, at the Harley Davidson store in Perrine. All proceeds will go to Adopt-A-Classroom, helping Dade teachers buy supplies. Key, 37, says his stepsister, who is a teacher, often had to dig into her own pocket for her students.
CELEBRITY ROUNDUP
Mary-Kate Olsen is off the hook. The famous twin will not be forced to testify in a Drug Enforcement Administration probe about Heath Ledger because authorities have forced the DEA to close the investigation.
LA VIDA LOCAL
Saturday nights at ParkWest Nightclub are quickly becoming the destination for celebrities, socialites and Miami's local tastemakers.
QUICK CHAT
Don't resent Gabrielle Reece for her rockin' body. Learn from her. The professional volleyball player and model, 38, is now a mother of two so she knows full well about fat days. Though she trains like a maniac -- every day for at least an hour -- she admits to doing cellulite-busting lipomassage.
CELEBRITY ROUNDUP
Maybe Morgan Freeman's passenger isn't a family friend, after all. Days after he was involved in a serious car accident (he's still in the hospital), Freeman's attorney, Bill Luckett, says the actor and his wife of 24 years, costumer Myrna Colley-Lee, have called it quits. Access Hollywood reports they have been separated for a few months.
SELECTED THURSDAY, AUG. 7 MIDDAY CASH 3 0-8-9 MIDDAY PLAY 4 7-7-6-3 NIGHT CASH 3 9-2-8 NIGHT PLAY 4 0-8-2-4 FANTASY 5 1-5-8-32-34 SELECTED WEDNESDAY, AUG. 6
SELECTED WEDNESDAY, AUG. 6 MIDDAY CASH 3 5-9-5 MIDDAY PLAY 4 0-2-7-2 NIGHT CASH 3 4-2-1 NIGHT PLAY 4 2-7-5-6 LOTTO 7-9-22-23-27-43
SELECTED TUESDAY, AUG. 5 MIDDAY CASH 3 6-1-2 MIDDAY PLAY 4 6-7-6-9 NIGHT CASH 3 3-7-4 NIGHT PLAY 4 8-2-2-4 MEGA MONEY 9-12-37-43+5
SELECTED MONDAY, AUG. 4 MIDDAY CASH 3 5-5-9 MIDDAY PLAY 4 9-4-8-6 NIGHT CASH 3 4-9-3 NIGHT PLAY 4 9-7-6-2 FANTASY 5 6-22-25-27-32 SELECTED SUNDAY, AUG. 3
Webcasts of drawings can be seen at www.flalottery.com SELECTED SUNDAY, AUG. 3 CASH 3 Day: 9-9-0; Night: 0-7-3 PLAY 4 Day: 6-7-1-6; Night: 5-5-0-0
